Sold Out

by Melody Carlson

  “Okay, okay.” He held up his hands as if to stop my flow of words. “What you’re telling us isn’t really anything new.” Then the corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly, and I’m sure I took in a deep breath as I sat back down.

  He continued. “Not that we’ve ever heard it put quite like that. And it might interest you to know that Mrs. Thorne, our church secretary, mentioned your little visit last week. And it had troubled her too. Well, that and a lot of other things. We’ve all been concerned with the direction things have been going with our new pastor, but we had wanted to give him a grace period. However, that period is over now, and the deacons and the council took a vote. It was almost unanimous—we are presently seeking to have Pastor Rawlins replaced.”

  Laura stood up trying to be heard amid the clapping and cheering that had erupted. “Are you serious, Dad?”

  He nodded. “I guess I should’ve told you sooner. But it wasn’t certain until just this week at the council meeting. We only informed Pastor Rawlins yesterday, and we’ll have a substitute in the pulpit on Sunday.”

  Laura ran over and hugged her dad with tears streaming down her face.

  “Well, I guess we didn’t really need to come over here and make all this fuss then.” I stood and sheepishly glanced toward the front door.

  “No, don’t feel bad.” He put his arm around Laura’s shoulders. “I’m glad you girls came. It’s like a real confirmation. As bad as things were with Rawlins, you still feel terrible giving a man his walking papers, especially someone who’s been preaching for as long as he has.”

  “Maybe it’s time he retired,” said James with a laugh.

  “Hopefully, he’ll let God help him through this ordeal,” said Mr. Mitchell.

  “You girls want something to drink?” asked Mrs. Mitchell. “I just made some iced tea.”

  So we all hung out for a while, drinking iced tea and chatting, and it seemed as though everything was going back to normal. But before we left I just had to ask Laura’s dad something. “So, do you think it’ll be okay for Laura to be back in the band again?”

  He shrugged. “Well, that’d be up to her.”

  I turned and looked at Laura to discover she had the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face. “You mean I haven’t been permanently replaced by Willy?”

  I had to laugh at that. “Willy’s pretty good, but he could never replace you. I honestly don’t think Redemption can continue without our original three.”

  “Then I’m in!” shouted Laura.

  “Me too!” said Allie giving her a high five.

  “Me three!” I said joining them.

  And so it looks as if Redemption might not be dead after all. I’m relieved I didn’t cancel any of our gigs yet. I had planned to do that this weekend, but instead it looks like we’ll be practicing big-time.

  And although I’m rejoicing over this, it’s mixed with sorrow. The whole thing with Pastor Rawlins has been a bit sobering to me. It’s not that I expect all pastors to be perfect, but I suppose I’ve put them on a bit of a pedestal. Even Pastor Tony. I need to remember that, like me, they’re just human. We all make mistakes. I suppose the difference is what we do with our mistakes. I realize now, more than ever, that I need to humble myself before God when I blow it. I need to accept His forgiveness and move on. I’m praying that Pastor Rawlins does the same. I’m praying that God will use this for Pastor Rawlins, and maybe he’ll be a whole lot happier in the end. He sure didn’t seem very happy to me the other day.

  BLESSED REDEEMER

  thank You, God

  praise Your holy name

  You are so amazingly

  incredibly, powerfully, almighty

  God

  thank You

  for redeeming

  redemption

  and me

  amen

  Eight

  Thursday, May 15

  Marissa seems to have really warmed up this past week. It’s as if she suddenly has this keen interest in listening to our conversations—no more of the “you’re making me sick” talk. So I’m feeling hopeful that God is really doing something in her after all. Not only that, but Laura’s gotten a lot more open to hanging with a wider variety of people. It’s as if she’s not scared anymore.

  Oh, I know that Jake, with his weird tattoos and lip rings, and Spencer, with his obvious drug habits, make her a little uncomfortable sometimes, but Laura’s actually managed to eat lunch with us twice this week—and been friendly. And she seems fairly impressed with what’s going on with Cesar. What’s even more surprising is how she and Marissa have made some sort of connection. Talk about your opposites. So anyway, when Marissa asked if we three wanted to go hang at the mall with her after school, before Allie and I could speak up, Laura said, “Sure, sounds fun.”

  Naturally, I was thinking, “Uh-oh, this could be trouble. Should I warn Laura about our last adventure in the mall with Marissa? Then again, Marissa had sworn off shoplifting.” Anyway, when I met Laura after school, she was so excited—and in a very un-Laura-like way acting like a total chatterbox—that I never got the chance to warn her. Besides, I was curious as to what was up.

  “Guess what?” she said as we walked toward her bright yellow Neon to meet Allie and Marissa.

  Well, I hate those ‘guess what?’ games. “Let’s see…you’ve decided to dye your hair pink?”

  She laughed. “Oh yeah! No, I was coming out of my algebra class, and Ryan Hall said hi.”

  Now I had to laugh. “That’s your big news, Laura? That Ryan said hi?”

  Of course, I should know better than this because Laura’s told me, in sworn secrecy, that she’s had a crush on him since grade school. Ryan Hall is a good friend of her brother James, not to mention a great athlete who probably has several college scholarships being tossed his way. Even a freshman like me knows all this. But anyway, I decided to play along with her. “So, did you say hi back to him?”

  “Of course, silly. And then he kept talking. He told me that he’d heard some good stuff about our band.”

  I smiled now. “Really? What does he think?” “He thinks it sounds pretty cool. But he really wants to hear us play. So I invited him to the Paradiso on Saturday.” Just then Allie and Marissa walked up, and we all piled into Laura’s car, and although I exchanged glances with Allie, it was too late to say anything else.

  But when we got to the mall, I locked eyes with Al and said that I was going to the rest room. Fortunately, she got my telepathy and trailed after me while Laura and Marissa waited for us.

  “Should we say anything to Marissa?” asked Allie.

  “I don’t know. I wanted to tell Laura about Marissa’s little habit, but I didn’t get the chance.”

  “Me neither.”

  “But Marissa did say she’s not going to do it anymore, remember?”

  “You think she really meant it?” Allie glanced to the door as an older woman came in.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe we should just trust her.” Allie was whispering now, and the older woman kept eyeing us both suspiciously as she pretended to rummage through her purse. I wondered if she might actually be an undercover security guard—and suddenly I started feeling guilty, which was totally weird. I shook my head and told myself that I was getting ridiculously paranoid.

  “Yeah,” I said. “We’re probably worried about nothing. Let’s get out of here.”

  So we went out, and the four of us headed over to the food court to get a snack. Then we started walking through the mall, hitting our favorite shops and just talking and joking around like normal. And as far as I could see, everything was perfectly fine—no sticky-fingers, nothing coming down. We were just getting ready to leave when I sighed in relief. Marissa had minded her manners. Of course, I didn’t see everything. Who ever does?

  We had just left Hodge-Podge, an accessories store that’s really sort of lame and preppy, and were about to exit from the mall when a man in a jean jacke
t stopped us. I thought maybe he was asking for directions at first, and then I got scared.

  “Come with me,” he said with a stern voice. Now I honestly thought this dude was trying to kidnap us. Pretty bold move to get four girls at once.

  “No way!” I said, stepping up to him like the tough chick that I can be if I need to.

  Then he opened his jacket, and I thought he was going to pull out a gun. I think my knees got a little weak just then. But instead he pulled out a badge. “I’m with security, and we think you girls have been shoplifting.”

  I glanced at Allie and she looked at Marissa.

  “We most certainly have not!” Laura stepped up beside me now, and I could tell she was really irritated.

  “Look, girls, you can come willingly and make this a whole lot easier or…” He now had a little radio that he was talking into, something about possibly needing police backup.

  Laura’s eyes narrowed, “Fine. But I expect a full apology when you find out you’re wrong.”

  I couldn’t take my eyes off of Marissa. But her face was completely void of emotion. Whether she was scared, angry, guilty, or whatever, there was no way to know for sure. We were then taken back to Hodge-Podge and through the store, where a couple of onlookers paused to stare, like we were some kind of criminals, a gang or something. He led us into the back room, where the overly made-up clerk was waiting with a stern look on her face. “Yep,” she said smugly. “That’s them.”

  “What are you talking about?” demanded Laura, her dark eyes flashing like burning coals. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that angry before.

  The clerk turned to the undercover security dude. “Can you handle this? I need to go watch the till right now, but I’ll call the cops from out there.”

  “This is totally absurd,” said Laura. “I demand to—”

  “Look, ladies, if you don’t have anything to hide, then you probably won’t mind if I check your backpacks and purses. If you’re innocent, you can be on your way with my apologies.”

  “Fine!” Laura slammed her purse onto the table in front of us. “But I think this is a case of plain harassment, and you guys could be in big trouble. My uncle is an ACLU attorney.”

  Allie and I exchanged glances as we slowly set our packs on the table. The officer was going through Laura’s oversize purse now, but’ Marissa still had her bag slung over her shoulder, her arms folded across her chest as she just blankly watched everyone. It’s almost as if she were simply a spectator there.

  “What’s this?” The security officer pulled a lime green scarf from Laura’s purse as if he’d just done a magic trick. The sales tag was still dangling from it. I could read the price of twenty-four dollars from where I stood.

  I’ve never seen Laura’s eyes so big. “What? Wha—” she sputtered then recovered. “That is NOT mine.”

  He nodded grimly. “Yes, that’s the whole point.” “Bu-but, I didn’t-”

  He interrupted her by reading the Miranda rights from a note card he just pulled from his pocket. Then he turned to our backpacks. “Kind if I have a little look-see here too?”

  I shrugged and the next thing I knew he was pulling his little magic trick again. Only this time it was a hot pink scarf coming from my pack. And the next one was a purple one from Allie’s. The three scarves were splayed across the table like some sort of hideous rainbow. I turned and glared at Marissa.

  “Next?” the officer held out his hand for her purse.

  Without saying a word, she handed it over, but after a quick search he found nothing. He handed it back. “Pockets?” he asked. Then she pulled out her jean pockets and showed him her jacket pockets until finally he seemed satisfied. “Okay, I guess you’re free to go.”

  “Wait just a minute,” I said quickly. “Marissa, what IS going on here?”

  She just shrugged. “See ya later.”

  “Marissa!” demanded Allie. “You are going nowhere.”

  “Quiet!” said the officer. “You three sit down and shut up. The police will be here in a few minutes.”

  “This isn’t fair-”

  The guard stuck his finger in my face. “I said quiet!”

  So as Marissa ducked out the door, we three sat in stunned silence as the guard removed our various ID cards from our bags and wallets and began writing down names and addresses as if we weren’t even there. What did he think? That if he asked us we would give him false ones?

  Marissa had obviously planted those stupid scarves in our bags, but why? Did she really hate us that much? Just when I thought we were getting somewhere with her too. You never know about people. But to think that she was off the hook—outta here just like that—totally infuriated me. I had absolutely no doubt that she had framed us! And I was so enraged that my fingernails were digging into my palms, but I knew I’d better do as the security officer had said. Keep quiet. Otherwise I’d say something totally regrettable.

  Then I heard this little snuffling noise to my left and turned to see Laura sitting there quietly crying, tears running down both cheeks, and suddenly I felt totally guilty. As if this were somehow my fault. After all, I’d been the one to originally befriend Marissa, and then I’d encouraged Laura to reach out to kids who were searching. And now look where it had gotten us today! I felt like total crud. Perhaps Pastor Rawlins had been right about me all along.

  And yet I was still furious at Marissa too. Holding back my own angry tears, I put my arm around Laura and whispered, “Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.” And then I turned to see Allie on my right. Her face looked pale as a sheet, as if she were in shock, but her head was bowed down, and I could see her lips moving. I knew she was praying. Suddenly I remembered about getting her record expunged and how this would ruin everything. Still fuming, I decided I better follow her lead.

  It seemed like an hour before the police arrived, although I suspect it was only a few minutes. It was a woman officer, and for some reason this made me feel just a tiny bit better. She went out of earshot to talk to the security officer then came back to us. “So is this some kind of a game?” she asked us.

  “Huh?” this from Allie.

  She picked up the three gaudy scarves. “This. I seriously doubt that you girls actually wanted these—uh—colorful scarves. Tell me the truth, are you girls in some new sort of club or gang? Was this some sort of an initiation or a dare or something?”

  I stood up now. “You want to know the truth?”

  “You’ve had your rights read to you?”

  I nodded. “The other girl—the one who was released, well, I don’t mean to be a snitch or anything, but we happen to know she shoplifts—”

  “What?!?” said Laura.

  “Yeah, I’m so sorry, Laura.” I turned back to the policewoman. “Anyway, Allie and I were with her once before when she stole thongs, and we tried to get her to take them back, but she wouldn’t. Then we talked to her about it at school, and finally she told us she wasn’t going to do it again.”

  The officer was writing something down.

  Allie stood up now. “It’s true. It was about a month ago. She went into Madelyne’s and stole a whole handful of thongs—”

  “You mean like flip-flops?” the officer looked at Allie skeptically.

  “No, I mean like underwear.” Allie shook her head hopelessly. “Oh, I’m sure you don’t believe us.”

  “Excuse me,” the store clerk stuck her head in the doorway and motioned to the policewoman. “I need to talk to you.”

  “You girls stay put,” said the officer, heading out the door.

  “You knew Marissa shoplifts?” said Laura in a horrified tone. “And you came to the mall with her again?”

  “It’s like I said…” I couldn’t make myself look at Laura. “She’d told us she wasn’t going to do it anymore.”

  “And don’t forget, Jesus forgave the thief on the cross.” Allie spoke in a weak voice, as if even she didn’t quite believe it anymore.

  Laura just slumped over in he
r chair, placing her head in her hands. “God help us.”

  Suddenly Allie started to giggle, and the next thing I knew she was humming one of our songs—the one called “God help us.” So, feeling generally lame about everything, I started singing along quietly with her, and before long Laura joined in too. And, well, it was actually pretty cool—the three of us sitting there in our little backroom dungeon, just singing away in three-part harmony. And before long, as strange and goofy as it sounds, we were actually smiling too.

  That’s when the policewoman and security guard walked back in. “What’s going on here?” asked the guard. “You girls turn the radio on?”

  I smiled. “Sorry, we were just singing.”

  He frowned. “That sounded pretty good.”

  “That’s because we’re in a band.”

  “A band?” the policewoman asked.

  “Yeah, we’re called Redemption. It’s a Christian band actually,” offered Laura, shaking her head. “Which must sound a little weird in light of all this.”

  I had to giggle now. “Look, as God is our witness, we did NOT take those scarves. Honestly, we didn’t. But we totally understand how we must look pretty guilty—getting caught with them right in our bags. Maybe you should just let us call our parents.” Yet even as I said this the prospect of explaining this whole thing to my parents sounded grim. And poor Allie. She’d been through this already. Laura looked horrified, and to be honest, I suppose I was more worried about how her parents would react to me than my own. I’d barely won their respect. And now this.

  “Well,” the policewoman began slowly. “It seems the clerk is backing your story now. She said it was the girl with the long dark hair that she’d actually witnessed lifting the scarves, but she just figured you were all involved. But the security camera will tell us the whole story.” She looked at me now. “What’s this girl’s name?”